A Bottomless Sea
by WaltzBurgNacht
Summary: A trapped and frightened girl calls out for help, and a grieving mother answers her cry. And nothing will ever be the same
1. Beached 01

Prologue- Beached 0.1

It was an oddly misty night, just after sunset, with a pale moon rising above the city-by-the-sea. And the air was still, lacking sound of any sort. For there was something off about this night. The quiet was unnatural, and had fallen upon the city even as the day finally turned to night. But it was more than the silence...

Something had come to Brockton Bay, and what it was, none knew, save that it was of fearful nature, and that it had come with the oppressive fog. But while the average citizen was merely uneasy, the Heroes and Villains that called this place home found it much worse.

All across Brockton Bay, the various Parahumans were wracked by unearthly terror. But of them, Four were effected worse than most.

Colin Wallis held his Halberd close to his chest as he crouched in a dark corner, fully armored, barely able to move.

Lisa Willborne fell to the floor of her room screaming, blood dripping from her eyes.

Chris Daniels found himself paralyzed in front of his bathroom mirror, heart beating so fast that he thought it might explode.

Sherrel Bailey died of an overdose, after taking every drug within her reach in an attempt to fend off her panic.

And inside a Locker located within Winslow High School, a crying girl felt an odd sense of comfort, even as a strange verse rang through her ears.

 _Curse Here... Curse There..._

 _A Curse for He, and She, why Care?_

 _A Bottomless Curse. A Bottomless Sea._

 _Source of all Greatness, All Things that Be._

 _Listen for the Baneful Chants._

 _Weep with them, as one in Trance_

 _And weep with me, oh, weep with me..._

 _For my Sweet Child now sleeps in the Bottomless Sea._

And so, Taylor Hebert's cries for help were answered. For those above, Greater than all, are Sympathetic in Spirit.


	2. Beached 02

Winslow

The next morning Myles Cram, a longtime janitor at Winslow High School, discovered that one of the lockers had been heavily vandalized. The door was buckled, the frame was bent, and the hinges had been nearly pulled off, but by some improbability the door was still closed.  
Try as he might, the man could not open the door. It might have been that it was wedged, that the broken hinges had caught or the lock snagged... or maybe it was because his gut was telling him that it was a bad idea, both literally and figuratively.

The Locker stank of dead fish, salt, mud, and things that Myles couldn't place. It made him want to vomit, and as it were he barely managed to stop himself from doing so. And so he left it be, lest he have to be the one to discover what was within...

~~~~~~~~~~~  
Madison Clements was worried, but she couldn't exactly place why. Maybe it was the Prank that they'd pulled on Hebert yesterday biting at her conscience... but if so, she ignored it. The feeling stayed with her on the way to school, nibbling at the back of her mind. It was because of this, along with the fact that she had just happened to get to Winslow early enough to be the first one to walk past The Locker.  
She hadn't even intended to go to class via that route, but somehow in her distraction she had managed it. The smell was just as awful as it had been yesterday or maybe even worse. But for reasons that escaped her, Madison pressed on.  
Her eyes widened in horror as she set eyes on the still closed door, bent in such a way that it looked like someone had tried to kick their way out. And she knew who that someone was...

But any more thoughts were halted in their tracks when the door burst open, releasing a wave of thoroughly disgusting and muddy seawater all over her. She staggered back, gagging at the stench, only to feel a sudden pain in her right hand.  
There had been something more than just water inside, as the silvery leech now fused invisibly into Madison's hand proved. But of course, she hadn't looked down in time to see it...

The shocked girl had been forced to take an impromptu shower, and then make use of her gym clothes for the rest of the day. Eventually she was sent home, after going to the nurse to check on the throbbing pain in her hand, only to collapse with a high fever

Emma Barnes hadn't made it to school that morning, despite her father's claims that he'd seen her leaving. The only thing he knew was that she'd said that she felt like taking the seaside route...

Sophia Hess was absent as well, but at least her location was accounted for. Principal Blackwell had been informed that she was "dealing with personal business" which was the PRT's code for "Cape Activities". Nobody inquired further. 


	3. Beached 03

Awakenings and Nesting

Sophia Hess ran for her life through the flooded streets of the Bay. No time to look back. No time to catch her breath. No time to even see if the pale abomination was still pursuing her.

She hadn't even been able to get a good look at the... the... she couldn't even describe what it was that had her running so fast her legs felt like they were being flayed to bone. Trying to think about it too hard made the insides of her eye-sockets ache.

From the glimpses she'd caught, it was big. As big as a house, yet it moved faster then anything that size had a right to move. And it could move... oh yes, it could move. It slid after her, barely making a sound save for a tell-tale whispering.

Those fucking whispers...

 _Hunter….. Hunter….. Blasphemer…. Murderer….. Beast….. Monster… Blood-Starved Fiend….. Puppet… Charlatan… Kin Slayer_

They hurt her ears, and filled her with unholy terror, repeating over and over and... and….and it was getting closer... closer... closer...

A gigantic shadow fell across her, the unearthly whispers making it impossible for her to move... to think... to become shadow….

Sophia Hess woke with a start, too terrified even to scream. She felt cold, not from sweat, but more like someone had dumped a bucket of water on top of her...

As she lay there, panting, it came to her attention that her mattress felt very different from when she'd first laid down. Much more wet and squishy, and... round? Why the hell did it feel like she was lying on a pile of water balloons? "I swear to god... if this is a goddamn prank I will-" Groping for the switch at the base of her lamp, Sophia sat up, the light letting her see exactly what it was that she'd been sleeping on.

Her screams woke everyone in the house, resulting in a mad dash to see what was wrong. Which led to even more screaming when they'd seen the same thing she had.

Eyes.

Sophia's bed had been replaced by a mass of gigantic red eyes drifting in a disgusting mix of mud, salt water, and rotting driftwood. Even more of the sludge coated everything else in the room painting a scene that wouldn't be out of place in an undersea wreck. ~I~I~I~  
Thomas Calvert walked quickly through one of his many escape routes, even as everything he had worked so hard to build up collapsed around him. It had all started when the perimeter guards had failed to check in. As had the team he'd sent to find them.

After the second team had gone missing the base had gone into full alert, following similar Master/Stranger Protocols to those used by the PRT, not that it had done much good when the halls started filling with seawater. At this point, the villain retreated into his second timeline… only to find that it didn't exist.

Even so, he hadn't panicked. The failure was easily explainable. In all probability whoever was assaulting his fortress had, or was a power-nullifying Trump. Nothing he couldn't work around.

No, it was only when he discovered that the passageway in front of him was now blocked by a pile of massive shells that he truly started to lose his cool.

And then the shells began to move…. 


	4. Beached 04

The Found Child

Taylor Hebert was content. She drifted beneath the surface of what seemed to be an endless ocean, entranced by the way that the moonlight created swirling shafts around her.  
But most of all, she felt safe. She wasn't trapped in the dark... But where was-  
 _Safe..._  
-she? No... it doesn't really matter... she's safe... safe... safe...  
 _Sleep_  
And tired... so very tired...  
Her vision fades, and she falls into a deep slumber...  
~I~I~I~I~  
She awakens on a small beach surrounded by cliffs, the oddly distorted moonlight making her head spin.  
 _Weep with me... oh... Weep with me..._  
And she isn't alone. A figure in a heavy white robe kneels over the corpse of what can only be described as a monster. Emaciated, tall, and covered with horrific wounds. But oddly enough, Taylor isn't afraid... only sad...  
She moves closer to the crying woman, at least... she thinks that it's a woman from the sound of her sobs, and places a hand on her shoulder. The material of her garment definitely isn't made of cloth... no, it feels more like the skin of a ray, smooth and slick with water.  
 _For my Sweet Child rests in the Bottomless Sea._  
~I~I~I~I~  
They stay there for what feels like hours, with Taylor attempting to silently console her companion without success... time seems meaningless here, as the Moon hangs unmoving in the sky, and the waves lap at the shore...  
Abruptly, the woman's weeping ceases, and everything stands still. Then, she speaks. Or does she? The voice flows through Taylor's mind like the slow drip of liquid. But they aren't even words... are they? The words... feelings... whispers of the tide almost etch themselves into her thoughts... like gestures, runes, the soft smell of the ocean currents...  
It doesn't make sense, yet at the same time does...  
But one part of the incomprehensible language clicks... a name...  
 _Kos..._  
Slowly and steadily, more words begin to make sense...  
 _Kos...  
Kos...m  
Kos...mother...  
Kos...Mother...Kos..._  
Outstretched arms... spinning like a clock... a name, a greeting, a story...  
In an instant, Taylor finally understands.  
Seven streams converge to a single river... a Star, glaring with horrific curiosity at a jagged spiral... tears, the ever watchful tears... cracks give way to a bloody slash, locked together with a bound and hanging corpse... The Blood-Red Moon hangs over all, it's endless dream bound to this place... this cursed nightmare...  
The signs convey this tale of woe, and Taylor is overcome with grief... she reaches out and hugs Kos as best she can... and in that moment, everything changes...


	5. Beached 05

Once again the pale moon shone down on Brockton Bay, making the white sand of the Boat Graveyard seem to almost glow. And it was to there that Lisa Wilborne had been drawn. She made her way through the twisted wrecks slowly, carefully, somehow knowing the way despite the bloody bandages covering her eyes. She'd torn them out you see, because it was what the Great Mother had told her to do.  
 _If the Blasphemous Fiends seek to line themselves with eyes, then you should not need them little one..._  
She giggled, made giddy by the smell of the moonlight and the dark. She could feel so much more now, unbound from her mortal vision, and she adored it. She had missed so much... blinded by her own sight. And now she was called here, ready to bear witness to the arrival of the Great Mother's new Child. Her teammates had tried to stop her, restraining her after she had relived herself of her burdensome eyes... But simple ropes and cloth were nothing to her. The words... the symbols signs and all manner of incomprehensible nonsense etched within her thoughts gave her strength, and drive. Once the others were asleep, she had made her escape, walking barefoot all the way to this grave of lost ships, so very much like her dreams of the forsaken village.

It did not matter if her feet were bloody, or if her body ached from her unceasing pace, because she was finally here. But where was the Child? Where was the one that the Great Mother had sent her to find? Was she late? Early? Had something terrible happened to the one who had given the Great Mother so much joy?  
The sound of the waves suddenly ceased as the tide inexplicably halted, bringing silence to the Graveyard.  
* _Splash_ *  
But what was that? Lisa didn't know, or did she? It could only be- yes, it must be her. She sank to her knees in reverence as the splashing sound grew nearer  
"Oh Great Kos! Great Mother of the Ocean! We offer you praise!"  
The water bubbled, churning up around whatever was rapidly ascending from the depths of the bay, even as the Parahuman continued her chant.  
"We have wept[Sadness] for you! For the loss[Cessation] of your Child[Offspring]! And now we offer you praise[Joy]! For you have found a joyous surrogate[Inheritor]!"  
With a great splash, a great figure burst from the ocean, and for a brief moment, Lisa wished she retained the ability to cry, so that she could shed tears of joy at this momentous occasion.  
"Rise[Ascend] up! Glorious Child of Kos[Progenitor]"

 _High Above_  
In High Orbit, the Simurgh moved. Not towards the Earth below, but upwards, towards the Moon.

 _Deep Below_  
In the depths of the ocean, Leviathan stirred, shifting it's head in the direction of Brockton Bay.  
Even deeper, near the Earth's core, Behemoth remained still.

And as he hovered above the very tip of Mount Everest, Scion's left eye twitched.  
[ **Beginning** ]


	6. Wave 01

A storm had come to Brockton Bay, and with it the sound of Sirens. Leviathan had come, very much ahead of schedule, and without warning of any sort. But that wasn't the only odd thing that the responders found. For the Endbringer was not attacking, nor was it really moving at all.  
It simply sat in the center of the Bay, flicking it's tail back and forth. It was here that the first truly clear pictures of the beast were taken, courtesy of the Tinker Viewfinder, who sent his camera drones as close as one meter from Leviathan's body, taking images from all angles.

After the first two hours, tension started to both grow and rise. While on one hand Leviathan wasn't trying to kill anyone or destroy the city, this behavior was completely unprecedented. Eventually it got to a point where some of the gathered Parahumans grew restless enough that Leviathan's first major movement, tilting it's head about twenty degrees to the left, caused Megaton, a high-level Blaster from San Diego, to fire on it with one of his replicating plasma charges.  
The resulting twelve projectiles garnered no movement from the Endbringer whatsoever.

The next change occurred four hours later, when Leviathan extended it's right arm to a fully horizontal position, while it's left arm went straight up in the air. It maintained this position for exactly forty-five seconds(measured to near-exaction after the event by Dragon), before swapping the pose to the opposite sides.  
Once again, it came under attack, this time from Bakuda, whose drone-delivered explosive charge reduced it's right arm to glass. Again, there was no counterattack.

Three minutes later, an unearthly sound reminiscent of whale song echoed around the foggy expanse, to which Leviathan responded in kind. After that, it spent only one more minute outside the City before retreating back into ocean, leaving the glassed arm behind.  
Afterwards, the two recorded sounds stumped experts as to their purpose. Some postulated that it was nothing, just an intimidation tactic and that the whole event was made to mess with them, while others theorized that it was a mating cry, based on the similarities of the sounds.  
That raised more than a few eyebrows, and many more alarms.

Still, at the moment the phenomena had no explanation. This would soon change. 


End file.
